A NEW CLASS OF LUMINOUS TRANSIENTS AND A FIRST CENSUS OF THEIR MASSIVE STELLAR PROGENITORS

By T. Thompson, J. Prieto, Krzysztof Zbigniew Stanek, Matthew D. Kistler, J. Beacom, C. Kochanek. 2008

163 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The progenitors of SN 2008S and the 2008 luminous transient in NGC 300 were deeply dust-enshrouded massive stars, with extremely red mid-infrared (MIR) colors and relatively low bolometric luminosities (≈5 × 104 L☉). The transients were optically faint compared to normal core-collapse supernovae (ccSNe), with peak absolute visual magnitudes of −13 ≳ MV ≳ −15, and their spectra exhibit narrow Balmer and [Ca ii] emission lines. These events are unique among transient–progenitor pairs and hence constitute a new class. Additional members of this class may include the M85 transient, SN 1999bw, 2002bu, and others. Whether they are true supernovae or bright massive-star eruptions, we argue that their rate is of order ∼20% of the ccSN rate in star-forming galaxies. This fact is remarkable in light of the observation that a very small fraction of all massive stars in any one galaxy, at any moment, have the infrared colors of the progenitors of SN 2008S and the NGC 300 transient. We show this by extracting MIR and optical luminosity, color, and variability properties of massive stars in M33 using archival imaging. We find that the fraction of massive stars with colors consistent with the progenitors of SN 2008S and the NGC 300 transient is ≲10−4. In fact, only ≲10 similar objects exist in M33 (and perhaps ≲1)—all of which lie at the luminous red extremum of the asymptotic giant branch sequence. That these transients are simultaneously relatively common with respect to supernovae, while their progenitors are remarkably rare compared to the massive star population, implies that the dust-enshrouded phase is a short-lived phenomenon in the lives of many massive stars. This shrouded epoch can occur only in the last ≲104 yr before explosion, be it death or merely eruption. We discuss the implications of this finding for the evolution and census of “low-mass” massive stars (i.e., ∼8–12 M☉), and we connect it with theoretical discussions of electron-capture supernovae (ecSNe) near this mass range. Other potential mechanisms, including the explosive birth of massive white dwarfs and massive star outbursts, are also discussed. A systematic census with (warm) Spitzer of galaxies in the local universe (D ≲ 10 Mpc) for analogous progenitors would significantly improve our knowledge of this channel to massive stellar explosions, and potentially to others with obscured progenitors.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5b95b8f1951605310fc658f20ed5cc5863c0690b

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Citations in the corpus

Luminous blue variables are antisocial: their isolation implies that they are kicked mass gainers in binary evolution (2014, background): “…some nearby SN impostors, detections of their relatively low-luminosity dust-enshrouded progenitors, as well as the ages of surrounding stars, suggest either progenitors that are 10-15 M⊙ BSGs/RSGs or even ∼8 M⊙ super-AGB stars (e.g., Prieto et al. 2008; Thompson et al. 2009; Kochanek et al. 2011).”
Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars (2014, background): “A realization in the past decade is that there is wide diversity among the SN impostors and their progenitors; some events that resemble LBV eruptions may actually arise in lower-mass progenitor stars (Prieto et al. 2008a, Thompson et al. 2009).”
SPITZER SAGE INFRARED PHOTOMETRY OF MASSIVE STARS IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD (2009, background): “Thompson et al. (2009) presented evidence for a short duration (< 104 yr) of the dust-enshrouded phase prior to eruption.”
Luminous blue variable eruptions and related transients: diversity of progenitors and outburst properties (2010, background): “SN 2008S and the 2008 optical transient in NGC 300 (N300-OT hereafter) were similar in their observed properties to other SN impostors, but Prieto and collaborators (Prieto 2008; Prieto et al. 2008; Thompson et al. 2009) discovered that their progenitors were faint and heavily obscured.”
THE COSMIC CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVA RATE DOES NOT MATCH THE MASSIVE-STAR FORMATION RATE (2011, background): “The situations are similar for NGC300-OT (Bond et al. 2009; Berger et al. 2009) and SN 2002bu (Thompson et al. 2009; Smith et al. 2011).”
DISCOVERY OF PRECURSOR LUMINOUS BLUE VARIABLE OUTBURSTS IN TWO RECENT OPTICAL TRANSIENTS: THE FITFULLY VARIABLE MISSING LINKS UGC 2773-OT AND SN 2009ip (2009, background): “Thompson et al. (2009) demonstrated clearly that over timescales of a few years in the same IRAC bands, known EAGB stars are highly variable (∆M4.”
Common envelope evolution: where we stand and how we can move forward (2012, background): “The rate of similar events has been estimated to be as much as 20 % of the core collapse SN rate (Thompson et al. 2009).”
Observed Fractions of Core-Collapse Supernova Types and Initial Masses of their Single and Binary Progenitor Stars (2010, background): “If the ECSN phenomenon occurs above 8.5 M , we consider it likely that those ECSNe will be included among the population of faint SNe II-P anyway, while those be- low could be excluded if they masquerade as faint transients or SN impostors (e.g. Thompson et al. 2009).”
Dawes Review 6: The Impact of Companions on Stellar Evolution (2016, background): “Whilst some have high luminosity and may derive from high mass stars, some may come from stars with lower mass progenitors (Prieto et al., 2008; Thompson et al., 2009) that should not approach the Eddington limit, raising the possibility of alternative pathways to these phenomena, possibly…”
Production of dust by massive stars at high redshift (2011, background): “The dust enshrouded phaselast d for∼ 104 years prior 21 to explosion (Thompson et al, 2009) and could be associated with the super-wind phase of SAGB stars.”
The search for failed supernovae with the Large Binocular Telescope: confirmation of a disappearing star (2016, background): “Once sufficiently cool, the slowly expanding ejecta is an ideal environment for dust formation, but this would only occur after the transient has already begun to fade (Kochanek 2014a).”
PREPARING FOR AN EXPLOSION: HYDRODYNAMIC INSTABILITIES AND TURBULENCE IN PRESUPERNOVAE (2013, background): “LBVs are generally thought to be very massive stars, but their mass range is known to extend down to 25 M⊙ (Smith et al. 2004) and some of the extragalacitc SN impostors appear to have relatively low-mass progenitors around 8 M⊙ (e.g., Prieto et al. 2008; Thompson et al. 2009).”
LSST: From Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products (2008, background): “• A deep search for new populations of novae and supernova progenitors (Smartt 2009; Thompson et al. 2009; Smith et al. 2011; see Fig.28).”
Progenitor mass constraints for core-collapse supernovae from correlations with host galaxy star formation⋆ (2012, background): “Indeed, it appears that the SNIIn and ‘impostor’ family is extremely heterogeneous with the possibility of a significant fraction arising from lower mass stars in dusty environments (e.g. Prieto et al. 2008; Thompson et al. 2009; Kochanek et al. 2012).”